Abstract
“Hydroplaning characteristics” is one of the key functions for safe driving on wet roads. Since hydroplaning depends on vehicle velocity as well as the tire construction and tread pattern, a predictive simulation tool, which reflects all these effects, is required for effective and precise tire development. A numerical analysis procedure predicting the onset of hydroplaning of a tire, including the effect of vehicle velocity, is proposed in this paper. A commercial explicit-type FEM (finite element method)/FVM (finite volume method) package is used to solve the coupled problems of tire deformation and flow of the surrounding fluid. Tire deformations and fluid flows are solved, using FEM and FVM, respectively. To simulate transient phenomena effectively, vehicle-body-fixed reference-frame is used in the analysis. The proposed analysis can accommodate 1) complex geometry of the tread pattern and 2) rotational effect of tires, which are both important functions of hydroplaning simulation, and also 3) velocity dependency. In the present study, water is assumed to be compressible and also a laminar flow, indeed the fluid viscosity, is not included. To verify the effectiveness of the method, predicted hydroplaning velocities for four different simplified tread patterns are compared with experimental results measured at the proving ground. It is concluded that the proposed numerical method is effective for hydroplaning simulation. Numerical examples are also presented in which the present simulation methods are applied to newly developed prototype tires.
